CROMWELL -- No matter how many times he fell short, or if someone beat him with a great shot, Ken Duke kept plugging along with his professional golf career.

Duke has won on other tours, including the Web.Com tour, but through 186 PGA Tour starts, he had come up short.

He had another opportunity on Sunday.

A 66 allowed Duke to have the lead outright at the conclusion of his round, but then Chris Stroud chipped in for birdie from behind the 18th green to force a sudden-death playoff.

"I signed up to play this game in 1994," said Duke, who also played the Canadian, South American and Asian tours, among others. "Obviously, you don't know how it's going to work out. And some people make it and some people don't. But I've always just believed in myself and tried to have fun with the game."

At one point, Duke, Stroud, Graham DeLaet, Bubba Watson and Fairfield native J.J. Henry were all tied for the lead at 10-under. Then Duke and Watson traded the lead back and forth until Watson had the lead by 1 standing on the 16th tee.

He proceeded to hit a 9-iron into the water that fronts the green. It led to a triple-bogey 6. It was the second straight day Watson, the 2010 Travelers Championship winner, blew a lead on the back nine.

"Mis-clubbed on 16. We thought the wind was going to do something else with my ball and obviously we misjudged it," Watson said about him and his caddie, Ted Scott. "The wind affected the first shot and didn't affect the second shot (from the drop zone, his actual third shot). I flew it three feet past the hole, which you can't do right now because the greens are so firm. We were trying to land it about 15 feet past the hole, make a bogey and try to get out of there and still have a chance."

DeLaet finished third at 11-under while Watson was fourth at 10-under. Henry and Webb Simpson tied for fifth at 9-under.

Reigning U.S. Open champion Justin Rose shot a 71 to finish with a 6-under 274 in a tie for 13th place. Defending Travelers champion Marc Leishman posted a 73 to finish at 3-under 277 and a tie for 30th place.

Travelers tournament director Nathan Grube said this was the first time the main parking lot was closed three straight days (Friday through Sunday) since Travelers took over title sponsorship.

"From everything I can measure, we were 15-20 percent up (from last year)," Grube said.